CacheCam

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Registration and Privacy

  1. Must I register to use CacheCam?
  2. Why should I become a registered user?
  3. Should I worry about giving you my email address?
  4. Should I worry about giving you my phone number?
  5. Can I have more than one User ID?

Profiles and Settings

  1. How do my default grab settings work?
  2. What is a waypoint preset?
  3. How many waypoints can I preset?
  4. How does CacheCam know my User ID if I don't include it in the request?
  5. Can I change my password after registering?
  6. Can I change my user ID after registering?

Grab Request Details

  1. How do I send an SMS/Text Message or email from my phone?
  2. Can I put the request elements in any order?
  3. Do I have to use commas betweeen elements?
  4. Can I put the request in the email's Subject: line?
  5. What is the difference between the Reply-to email address and the Alert-to email address?
  6. How is the Delay element useful? I always just use my phone at the cache site.

Grab Problems

  1. What happens if the webcam I'm geocaching is down?
  2. After six minutes of waiting for the grab I get an error. What happened?
  3. Why can't CacheCam cope with certain webcams?
  4. How can CacheCam grab from a webcam that needs a username and password?
  5. Why am I not getting alert messages after requesting a grab?

Grabbed Images

  1. How many images are stored on the CacheCam website?
  2. How long are images kept on the CacheCam website?
  3. Why didn't I get the image in email, even when I asked for it?
  4. Why are there so many images that seem have no one in particular in them?

Registration and Privacy

  1. Must I register to use CacheCam?

    No, not at all. Guest users are welcome to use the system, without ever creating a profile. The drawback is that you must include the required elements in each of your grab requests, rather than benefiting from a stored settings profile.

  2. Why should I become a registered user?

    Registering with CacheCam enables you to create and maintain your default grab settings and preset waypoint profile. Default grab settings 'fill in the blanks' for grab requests you make, so that youdon't have to include all of those details in each request. Waypoints make it easy to enter the request on your phone. Rather than key in a long URL, with just a few keystrokes you have entered your preset waypoint! As a registered CacheCam user, your webcam goecaching experince just gets easier and more fun!

  3. Should I worry about giving you my email address?

    No, if you use CacheCam for it's intended purpose. We don't sell, trade, share, or give away any email address or phone number that you share with us. That information is used only to accomplish the image grab that you requested. We do record the sender (your email address or your phone's email address) in our electronic logs, as we process your grab request. These logs may be kept for some time, but are stored only on our own in-house systems. Please review our Privacy Policy for more information.

    Yes, if you abuse your privilege and access to CacheCam, by using CacheCam to generate nuisance emails to other parties, or to grab, store, or forward indecent images and other offensive material, or through other acts that annoy us. In that case, we will use the information that we've been able to collect to prevent further access to the CacheCam system. Please review our Acceptable Use Policy for more information.

  4. Should I worry about giving you my phone number?

    See the above item.

  5. Can I have more than one User ID?

    Yes, but why would you? Of course, we can't stop you from creating multiple IDs, but if there is a problem that you are trying to solve with multiple IDs, perhaps we should hear about it. Use the Contact Us link at the bottom of the page to let us know what would make your experience better.

Profile Management

  1. How do my default grab settings work?

    When you set up your default grab settings (Reply-to, Alert-to, and Delay) on the MyProfile page you tell CacheCam how to process your image grab request, without having to explicitly include that information in your request each time. You are able to update these settings at any time, and even override them in any specific request. So they really simplify the effort of sending a request to CacheCam.

  2. What is a waypoint preset?

    Waypoint presets are short nicknames that you assign to potentially lengthy URLs, the internet addresses to webcams. These waypoint names are set on the MyProfile page and are chosen by you so they are easy to remember and easy to use. By setting a preset, you can reference that URL by using the nickname, or waypoint, instead. This makes a phone grab much simpler because you don't have to key in a complex URL with lots of punctuation marks on your phone's tiny keypad. Instead, a handful of easy to type characters will do the trick.

  3. How many waypoints can I preset at any given time?

    Ten. After you have successfully grabbed the image from one or more, you can remove some to make room for more.

  4. How does CacheCam know my User ID if I don't include it in the request?

    When you send a grab request to CacheCam, and don't include your User ID, the system tries to figure out who you are by checking the sender's address in the email that it receives. If it can match that address against a Reply-to or Alert-to email address in a registered user's profile, then it assumes that you are that user. From there it can use the User ID it finds to check waypoint presets and the other grab defaults.

    This is especially useful if you tend to use your phone a lot for webcam geocaching. By including your phone's email address in the Alert-to (or the Reply-to) default setting, whenever you send a grab request to CacheCam from your phone it will automatically identify you as the requester and use your waypoints and grab defaults, as if you had included them (or your user ID) in the actual request. In this way, you can do a phone grab request by typing only a few characters, that is, simply the waypoint name.

  5. Can I change my password after registering?

    Yes. Login and go to the MyProfile page. Once there, enter your password twice in the password and verification fields and save your changes. You are not required to login again until you explicitly logout.

  6. Can I change my user ID after registering?

    Yes. Login and go to the MyProfile page. Once there, simply change your name and save the change. If the new name you choose is already in use by another user, your name will not be changed, and you will be returned to the MyProfile page with a message alerting you to that name conflict. You can then keep your old name, or choose another. When you do change your user ID, you are not required to login again until you explicitly logout.

Grab Request Details

  1. How do I send an SMS/Text Message or email from my phone?

    The varied array of mobile phones each have different ways to compose and send messages. There are so many different brands and models that it is not possible to give specific instructions here. Please contact your mobile phone service provider for information on sending and receiving messages on your own phone.

  2. Can I put the request elements in any order?

    Yes, with a couple of conditions. If you include an Alert-to address, it must appear after the Reply-to address, and, if you include a User ID, it must appear after the URL or Waypoint. Other than these two special rules, you can put the request together how you like.

    Some examples:

    • <URL⁄Waypoint>, <Reply-to>, <Alert-to>, <Delay>, <User-ID>
    • <URL⁄Waypoint>, <User-ID>, <Delay>, <Reply-to>, <Alert-to>
    • <Delay>, <Reply-to>, <URL⁄Waypoint>, <User-ID>
    • <URL⁄Waypoint>, <User-ID>
    • <Reply-to>, <Delay>, <URL⁄Waypoint>, <Alert-to>
  3. Do I have to use commas betweeen elements?

    No, they are not required as long as you separate the request elements with one or more spaces. Actually, you can use commas, spaces, or both.

  4. Can I put the request in the email's Subject: line?

    No. CacheCam only examines the first line of the email message body for the request. You can have text in the subject line, but CacheCam will ignore it. It will also ignore all lines after the first in the message body.

  5. What is the difference between the Reply-to email address and the Alert-to email address?

    CacheCam can send out several different alert messages during the grab process, including:

    • "Grab of <Waypoint⁄URL> starts in <Delay> minutes"
    • "Grab of <Waypoint⁄URL> started"
    • "CacheCam got it!"

    These are sent to the Alert-to address. It would be most appropriate for this Alert-to address to be your mobile phone's email address. That way you can be alerted as the grab is actually taking place.

    Once the image grab is complete, CacheCam sends the image to the Reply-to address. Your personal email address would be most appropriate for this.

    These two addresses can be the same. If you set them to your phone's email address, you will receive the alerts, and if you have a multimedia-capable phone, the image, too.

  6. How is the Delay element useful? I always just use my phone at the cache site.

    There may be times when you need to make the request away from the actual webcam geocache location. Perhaps you are using a cybercafe's computer to make the request, and need a minute or two to get to the cache location. The Delay element tells CacheCam to delay starting the grab until that time has passed.

Grab Problems

  1. What happens if the webcam I'm geocaching is down?

    CacheCam tests the webcam URL immediately upon receiving your request. If it cannot connect to the webcam server, it will immediately send an error alert message to your Alert-to address to let you know, and then it cancels the grab. When you later learn that the webcam is back online, you must resend the request.

  2. After six minutes of waiting for the grab I get an error. What happened?

    The image never changed. When doing a grab CacheCam checks for an update every 10 seconds during the first minute. For the next five minutes, CacheCam will check every 30 seconds. If the image is not updated during this six minute period CacheCam will give up, sending you an error alert.

    When this happens, it is probable that the webcam is down, but that the webcam's server is still sending a stale image. The only thing you can do is wait for the problem to be fixed and then try again.

  3. Why can't CacheCam cope with certain webcams?

    Some webcam websites make use of ActiveX or Java controls or other plug-in components to allow the web surfer to manipulate the camera and generate the image from their computer. CacheCam can't use these plug-ins. You can often get around this problem by first using your computer to determine the actual URL of the image itself. Use that image address as the URL in your request, or in a waypoint preset, rather than the webpage address, to get past this problem.

  4. How can CacheCam grab from a webcam that needs a username and password?

    This is not common, but some webcam owners use webcams that are set up to use a username and password. These credentials are often given on the webcam website, but you must enter them to get the image.

    The HTTP protocol does provide a lesser-known method of entering these credentials right in the URL. For example:

    http://username:password@website.com/image.jpg

    automatically enters username and password for you when you enter the URL.

    When you face a webcam with a credentials requirement, simply include the username and password in the URL in your request, or in the waypoint preset's URL.

  5. Why am I not getting alert messages after requesting a grab?

    First, if you included the Alert-to element in your request, make sure that you didn't mis-type it.

    Second, if you didn't include the Alert-to element, and have it preset in your profile's default grab settings, again, double check that you didn't mis-type it.

    Third, CacheCam sends alerts through the internet email system, which are received by your telephone provider, then converted to an SMS message, and then sent on to your phone. Sometimes the telephone provider is slow to transfer internet email to the SMS network. At other times, they are handling so much traffic that it can take possibly several minutes for a message to get through to your phone. If this happens a lot to you, there might not be a solution, except to change carriers.

Grabbed Images

  1. How many images are stored on the CacheCam website?

    At most, about 100. There might be fewer, and there might be more, but as a general rule you can expect there to be not more than one hundred.

  2. How long are images kept on the CacheCam website?

    It depends. If there are a lot of users making image grab requests, then the number of images will increase fairly rapidly, pushing the older images off the end of the list.

    If you use CacheCam without including a Reply-to address, then it is advisable to come back to cachecam.com soon after your image grabs are complete and download your own copy of the image before they are removed from the Recent Grabs section of the website.

  3. Why didn't I get the image in email, even when I asked for it?

    First, double check your Reply-to address. Make sure that you have not mis-typed it. This would prevent the replying email with the image from getting through, of course.

    Second, make sure that your email provider is not blocking attachments. If they are, and you can't get them to change that restriction, simply come back to cachecam.com and download a copy of the image when you have a chance. That is why we keep a copy and 'archive' it for a while in the Recent Grabs section of the website.

  4. Why are there so many images that seem have no one in particular in them?

    As new users become acquainted with the CacheCam system they often make practice grabs to gain experience. These trial runs are treated as any other grab by the system, and so the images are posted to the Recent Grabs section, just like other 'legitimate' images.

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